Dead morbid - or fatally attractive?

ART enthusiasts may feel fatally attracted to a new exhibition just opened
at f a projects, in Bear Gardens, SE1, by Japanese photographer Izima
Kaoru despite its morbid subject matter.

Entitled 'Landscapes with a Corpse', the exhibition captures images
of the 'perfect death', thanks to a unique collaboration between the photographer
and his subjects, usually actresses and models.

The collaboration extends to location, the actress outfit and the manner
of her death and Kaoru then constructs the scenes and shoots a series of images
from the panoramic to the close-up.

Initially shot in Japan with Japanese models, wearing outfits by the likes
of Yohji Yamamoto, Hermès or Prada, Kaoru has this year begun to make
works in the series in Europe, working with European models, most recently
in Munich, with Barbara Rudnik, and in France with Helena Noguerra and Aure
Atika. For this exhibition Karou will exhibit works from these recent series.

Landscapes with a Corpse is said to assert the artists
firm belief that death be viewed as an integral part of life, rather than
its opposite. The images are said to harness the power of their troubling
conjunction of beauty and horror. They consider the part that notions of death
and beauty play in the Japanese culture and psyche, and, in extending their
practice to the West, negotiate the slippage between Western and Japanese
cultural tropes.

Undoubtedly
one of the most striking images on show - which can also be viewed by clicking
through to the f a projects website using the above link - is that of a nubile
woman lying in a field, her face pointing skywards (right).

It would be easy to presume, at a glance, that she is day dreaming, but then
you notice the scarlet slash across her neck and the realisation of what is
being depicted sinks in. Japanese photographer Izima Kaoru works with his
models to stage their fantasy of "a perfect death". In spite of
their neat bullet wounds, these corpses are young, pretty and clad head-to-toe
in designer labels. Anticipate beautiful melodrama rather than a gory forensic-lab
aesthetic. In the project space, Jo Mitchell shows her appropriately themed
text-based work - the word Suicide spelled out in swirly, graffiti graphics.
fa Projects, SE1, 10am- 6pm Tuesday- Friday, 11am-4pm Saturday, 020 7928 3228.

In the autumn of 2002 Kaorus work will be included in the exhibition
'Rapture: Art's Seduction by Fashion, 1970  2001', at the Barbican.
Recent exhibitions include the Netherlands Photo Institute, Rotterdam, Von
Lintel and Nusser, New York and Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris. His work is represented
in collections internationally.

Izima Kaoru, Landscapes with a Corpse - March 7 - April 20f a projects, Bear Gardens, off Park Street, SE1.

Access by car: Park Street meets Southwark Street, east of Southwark Bridge
Road. There is no access to Park Street from Sumner Street. There are parking
meters close to the gallery.

By train or underground: The gallery is close to Cannon Street (British rail
and District and Circle Lines), Southwark (Jubilee Line), London Bridge (Jubilee
and Northern Lines), and Mansion House (District and Circle Lines).

By bus: Bus numbers 381and 344 pass close to the gallery, on the south side
of Southwark Bridge. Buses 17 21 35 40 43 47 48 133 149 501 521 run to the
south foot of London Bridge. North of the river, buses 15 and 23 run close
by.